ComplicationsAddiction: Shinobi is a complete hedonistic junkie, always doing important things like planning criminal activities and martial arts training while half-naked, half-drunk, and rubbing up on dozens of people likewise indisposed.Black King: Sebastian has a responsibility as leader of the Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle. This position also makes him a tempting target to those looking to be leader of the Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle.Relationship: Shinobi was pretty much disowned by his father, so he made it his mission in life to destroy his father and usurp everything the man had.

Shinobi Shaw is the illegitimate son of Sebastian "Black King" Shaw. Pretty much the only interactions Shinobi had with the old man were being called a "sissy" and a "mama's boy" before getting shipped back to boarding school. So Shinobi grows up to be really needy and insecure and a powerful mutant. Because in addition to the lacks of empathy and self-reflection necessary to join the Upstarts, Shinobi was born with the power of molecular density control. This means this normally PL 4 loser can become a diamond hard PL 7 with 7.5 active defenses. Those stats being somewhat less than impressive, Shaw can go the other way and become completely insubstantial. The one thing that actually makes Shinobi his listed PL 9 is his ability to mix the two density shifts and totally scramble the molecules of whatever he touches. Isn't it weird how Shinobi's powers seem to have more in common with "Uncle Harry" Leland's than those of the purported father?

Nice Shinobi. It's funny how much of a wussy he was- always running away and stuff. Hell, I didn't even know he had a Dense form until looking up his bio, and I have a TON of issues with this guy in them- he got a BIG push back in the '90s, but they always kinda half-assed it. Marvel also kinda sneakily made him bisexual, but you have to actually look closely at the panels to figure it out. I'm not sure which is more objectionable- that they made him bisexual to make him ULTRA-depraved, or that they made such a worthless jobber character one of their bisexual characters ?

What? An ultra-depraved wussy can't be bisexual? I mean, my biggest issue with him is they killed off a perfectly good, middle tier, mastermind villain (Sebastian Shaw), to push this boneheaded loser. Of course, you could take that complaint and replace Shinobi with Fitzroy and Sebastian Shaw with the Hellions and it would be equally valid.

Oh course an ultra-depraved wussy man can always just happen to bisexual. But when you just hide and hint at his bisexuality in order to suggest that a depraved wussy is even more depraved and wussy than he has already been shown to be...that says something nasty.

Thanks for the comments though, guys. I hate the Upstarts so much that I just had to share them with the Think Tank for all to ridicule and pummel. Fortunately, the roster of those schmucks has been exhausted and we move on. But as always, we move on tangentially! From failed Black King of the Lords Cardinal of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Shinobi Shaw to the Black Queen, Selene.

ComplicationsEnemy: Selene has some kind of mad on for Rachel Summers, whom she has repeatedly attempted to brainwash and enslave.Motivation: Greed: Selene has been a force of avarice for millennia. When she got hungry she ate her tribe. When she missed Rome she uprooted thousands of people to build the theme park version for herself. When she wanted modern social power she joined the Hellfire club and immediately tried to off Shaw and Frost. Etc.Weakness: Pushing her powers can cause Selene to burn through her store of stolen lifeforce faster than normal, weakening and aging her at a considerable rate.

Selene Gallio is possibly the eldest human mutant in the world. This immortal psychic was born to a primitive tribe at the dawn of man. They recognized her for what she was and scarified themselves to feed the girl. That girl fed and kept feeding for thousands of years, occasionally spawning lesser vampires along the way. Selene first appeared in comics when the New Mutants stumbled upon a city Selene had built in the Amazon jungle and then threw her in a volcano. Selene was eventually okay because did you miss the part where she's an immortal vampire mutant? After that she heads to New York on the trail of the New Mutants and hooks up with the Hellfire Club and becomes a full-on X-men villain. Like the other Lords Cardinal thus far statted, the Black Queen is PL 13 beast. Selene hits her caps with her saves and her life stealing/mind controlling touch. When she's full up on lifeforce, Selene can also psychically project that force in a big array that includes two more capped out powers. Aside from that Selene has entirely separate array of magic powers because what immortal mutant psychic vampire shouldn't also be a sorceresses? One those powers gets her to cap on defense as well. All of that plus a bunch of utility powers necessary for an immortal psychic vampire sorceress mean Selene is pretty expensive. But those who achieve godhood by consuming the souls of the fallen should be, right?

As a big fan of Sebastian Shaw, and of at least some of the Hellions that Fitzroy killed (okay, one of them, Catseye!), I really loved to hate those darn Upstarts!

Horsenhero wrote: Ah Songbird, the single most popular member of the Thunderbolts (at least as far as my unofficial, non-scientific poll can determine) and my favorite as well.

A random something I just noticed, according to Kurt Busiek, regarding choices for the Thunderbolts;

We considered everyone who'd ever been a Master at that point, but scrapped most of them because they were either hard to disguise (like, say, the Absorbing Man) or wouldn't be interested (the Enchantress).

The only one who might have been a likely choice was the female Yellowjacket, but at that point her recent history was so messed up ("died" in the near future in the Crossing after having been hanging with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the farther future), that we didn't want to have to deal with all that, so we used Screaming Mimi instead. kdb

ComplicationsDisability: Harry's hedonistic Hellfire lifestyle has added up to a big gut and bad heart. Either could bring him down if he has to push himself.Motivation: Greed: Pretty much du rigor for a one of the Lord's Cardinal.Secret: Harry Leland is supposed to be a prominent corporate attorney, not a bizzarely costumed super-villain and murderer.

Harry Leland was a big shot corporate lawyer who got himself into the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle. He quickly started backing the other secret evil mutant millionaire in the room and was awarded with a high position when Sebastian Shaw became Black King. The position commonly brought Leland into conflict with superheroes, which kinda sucks when you're fatass with PL 5 defenses. Harry does have a means of fighting back though, the mutant ability to increase the mass and density of any object in range. Harry never practiced with this power enough to get many uses from it, but it is powerful enough to restrain Ms Marvel, Colossus, or Nimrod! Unfortunately, Harry pushed himself to hard trying to defeat Nimrod and gave himself a heart attack saving both the Hellfire Club and the X-men. He's been back as a zombie twice.

ComplicationsEnemy: Pierce has hated Wolverine ever since the X-man cut his arm off at their first meeting. Dude even built the Reavers specificially out of other guys who hate Wolverine.Hatred: Pierce is old school in his hatreds and prejeducies. He doesn't just hate mutants, but also women and minorities. He really hates mutants though.Motivation: Greed: Pretty much du rigor for one of the Lords Cardinal.Weakness: Though Pierce's cybernetics are typically better than his purely organic parts, they can be shorted out or magnetized or whatevered.

Donald Pierce gained his place in the Hellfire Club by virtue of being the highly successful CEO of Pierce Consolidated Mining. That success was largely due to Pierce's knowledge of both business and geology. It turned out that he also had a huge talent for robotics as he was eventually revealed to be a self built cyborg. Pierce's robotic limbs grant him power and speed far greater than human levels. These armed and armored portions of Pierce's body are what get him up to PL 10 on defense and contain a variety of weapons for PL 8, 9, and 10 attacks for different situations. This is the guy who built the fake Wolverine and little girl robots Albert and Elsi-Dee.

ComplicationsMotivation: Greed: Pretty much du rigor for one of the Lords Cardinal.Responsibility: Friedrich is the hereditary high priest of the Selene worshiping cult known as the Cult of Fire and is pretty much bound to her will.Secret: Friedrich is supposed to be the wealthy owner/operator of a world class jewelers, not a bizarrely costumed super-villain and murderer.Temper: When his lycanthropy is activated, Friedrich is pretty much a bloodthirsty killer.

Friedrich von Roehm is a world renowned jeweler who parlayed that position into a spot in the Hellfire Club. As he is also the secret high priest of Selene's millennia old clut, when she showed up in his Park Avenue shoppe, he made sure that she was able to join as well. Friedrich is not a mutant or a cyborg like many of his peers, but he is a mutate. Selene hid a strain of lycanthropy in his families genetics long ago and can activate it in our boy here. With his lycanthropy activated the Black Rook is a mildly superhuman hunter and killer. Capable of tracking and tearing apart prey at PL 8 level. As that counts for pretty much nothing when fighting Nimrod, Friedrich was pretty much disintegrated in one shot by the future sentinel. Maybe that's why he's the Lord Cardinal nobody ever remembers.

ComplicationsReputation: Disposable minions.Responsibility: The Hellfire guards are there to guard and serve the members of the Hellfire Club.

Like all evil comic book organizations the Hellfire Club needs hordes of losers to throw at the heroes. So we get these guys. As a rich and powerful group, the HC has slightly higher hiring standards than say HYDRA or something. So their guards are slightly more fit and better trained. They're also more polite and personable, since you don't want to the boor who upsets one of the Inner Circle's evening out. Despite all of that and the mind shielding featureless masks the Hellfire guards wear they still get taken down by the score when facing the X-men.

ComplicationsMotivation: Greed: Pretty much du rigor for one of the Lords Cardinal. Even the wannabes like Wyngarde.Secret: Jason Wyngarde tries to present himself as a rich and dashing member of the Hellfire Club, but he's really an ugly old carney.

Jason Wyngarde was a carnival mentalist until Magneto recognized his power and recruited him into the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. As Mastermind, the illusionist mutant lusted after power and Scarlet Witch in pretty much equal measure until he got turned to stone. Eventually, he shows up as probationary member of the Inner Circle plotting to warp Jean Grey's psyche into having her join the Inner Circle as the new Black Queen. And he almost succeeded! Mastermind can be a seriously effective bad guy and its all in his power to push all sorts of sensory data into others' minds. He can make them think that he looks like a movie actor, or that he's not there, or even that they're dying. With the White Queen's help, he also got a device that lets him connect directly to his victim's mind and display what the victim thinks is happening. And yeah, powerful enough to work on proto-Dark Phoenix. Aside from his power, Mastermind is only PL 8 on saves and 5 on active defenses but with all his tricks actually getting a shot in is the hard part.